Tattoo Nation Analysis

The main point of the film Tattoo Nation was to give a detailed background of the history and the revolution of tattoos, people’s views on tattoos, and the changes that these views have made over the past century. As the film progressed, I found the different interviews of various experienced tattoo artists to be very important. Some of the artists that basically founded the first tattoo shop gave the detailed information that was needed to understand society’s view on tattoos during the World War II era and then society’s view after about fifty years. This progression of views is key to understanding the evolving views and methods of tattooing.

After watching the film, one surprising thing that I learned was that Travis Barker, Blink-182’s drummer, tattooed his entire body as a memorial for his mother. His mother passed away when he was 13 years old and she told him, “Just keep playing the drums.” To ensure that his mother’s words were lived by, Travis wanted to make it so his body was so covered in so many tattoos that not a single employer would ever want to hire him and the only choice he would have is to play the drums as a professional career. He was obviously very successful in this task. The second surprising thing that I learned from the film was that a tattoo needle used to be made in prison by inmates with some very simple supplies. It was created with a sharpened guitar string, a pen, and a cassette player. The motor of the cassette player would send vibrations to the end of the guitar string and send ink into the skin. It was said to be the most painful way to get a tattoo. People made their own needles in this way and in many other ways for many years. I also learned that each year there are over 350 tattoo conventions and shows held worldwide. This proves that tattooing is accepted by a majority of the population today.

At the beginning of the film, tattoos are portrayed as almost criminal acts. It was displayed that in the beginning of tattooing history, it was most common for a person to only have a tattoo if they were in prison at some point. Since these views were imminent, whoever got a tattoo was usually viewed as a criminal or bad person. People who got tattoos were considered deviant by the rest of society. Tattoos were considered deviant acts, since people who purchased them were considered to have broken the norms of the rest of society. Over the past few decades tattoos have become much more common than ever before. The criminal stigmas that were attached to the idea of getting tattoos has now faded. Each and every day working class citizens receive tattoos and society ceases to judge them like the past. If one were to ask people that were alive in the World War II era about their views on tattoos, they would probably describe them as evil, criminal, scandalous, or deviant. The views of older residents typically haven’t changed from what they were in the past, when most younger people have evolved their views over some generations.